Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university, including at least 90 credits in the social sciences or humanities. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

After the course the student should be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• account for main concepts from media and communication theory presented throughout the course.
• summarize recent trends in the transformation of media and communication in Russia and the post-Soviet region.
• describe various media systems in the post-Soviet region.

Competence and skills:

• independently find, analyse and compare various types of texts about media in the region.
• with the help of empirical cases, identify and compare particularities of main media practices in different countries of the region and their influence on the respective societies.
• independently analyze various media systems in the post-Soviet region in particular identify the links and interactions between different political, economic, public and media actors.
• exemplify and analyse nuances and differences in media and communication practices across various settings.

Judgement and approach:

• critically assess the relation between political regimes and media systems in respective countries.
• problematise and evaluate the democratisation potential of various types of media practices.
• critically evaluate media strategies of different actors in political communication.

Content

The course gives an overview of the post-Soviet media landscapes from the perspective of contemporary media and communication theories. It discusses particularities and similarities of the media systems in the region as well as media practices that emerge around new and social media and their implications for political and social life. This is achieved through the consideration of relevant empirical cases. In particular, the course focuses on attempts of various actors to control the public and civil society organization. Students are expected to be working both individually and in groups, making use of various types of texts related to the purpose of the course.

Instruction

Instruction is in the form of seminars and lectures.

Assessment

The course is examined by oral presentations and written assignments.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator or a decision by the department's working group for study matters.